The Uprising
by Smile Guy
Summary: Matt would have been an ordinary boy, until his life is turned upside down when he breaks his back and is rendered paralyzed. Then Kate turns up and once again, his life is thrust upside down... But it doesn't end up the right way up...
1. The Girl and Her Linoone

**Chapter 1 - The Girl and Her Linoone**

Odd, how things happen really…

Three years ago I had had all the aspirations to be an adventurer, to travel the four corners of the world, to witness wonders that no one before me had ever witnessed. And to become a pokémon trainer, to win the pokémon league, to catch all the pokémon in the world, to have legions of memorable friends.

Now, I lay flat on my back, in my bedroom with no chance of anything like that ever happening. I had a broken back. I was paralysed.

To be exact I was lying on my bed in my bedroom. No longer was my room plastered with pictures and merchandise indicating an obsession with pokémon, but it was dull and drab, white-washed with the only thing of interest being the uniquely patterned curtains. They were drawn over a window which would have looked out over the valley that Pallet Town lay in, but, the view had practically tortured me and I had requested for them to be drawn. I wasn't under my bed clothes, merely on them -- when I was under them that meant it was time for me to sleep. I felt something brush my feet at the bottom of the bed and wished to know end that I could just peer down and see what it was.

My name was Matthew and I was fifteen. I had light brown hair which used to be very springy, but now, in accordance to my affliction it had gone limp and dry. A similar occurrence had happened in my eyes. They had been a vibrant brown and people had often commented how my eyes had been full of life… not any more. This had happened all over my body: My muscles had disappeared and I had become stick-thin -- undoubtedly I would also be very weak, if only I had the ability to prove it… I felt a tear trickle down my face.

Then I felt something brush against the side of my leg, (I had not lost feeling, merely movement) and this time I could see what it was out of the corner of my eye. A Linoone was lying next to me.

Now this was strange to me. First of all, I knew very well that neither I, nor my parents owned a Linoone. Indeed, I doubted anyone I knew had ever even seen a Linoone, given their absence in the Kanto region. I only recognised this elongated pokémon, with dark brown stripes on it's beige coloured body was from the rare chance my mum had time to hold up a book to me so I could read -- from pictures basically.

My confusion was even greater when I heard a girl's voice from behind me.

"Oh dear. Blimey, this can't be right…" She had a city accent which I subconsciously made a connection to Goldenrod City in Johto (I had been there on holiday once).

"Who's there?" I managed to mumble. I swallowed a lump in my throat which made me realise I was quite nervous.

"Robs? Was that you? I -- Oh my god…" Her voice trailed off.

"Who is that?" I asked, feeling a little stronger that she seemed equally worried about me.

"You -- you -- you can hear me?" she asked, stuttering. I grunted a 'yes'.

"But… can you see me?" she said, and then added, "Can you see Linoone?"

"I can see Linoone but, not you." I replied, my nerves once again fully intact. She side-stepped into my view and flourished her hands in front of my face. She had long brown hair which was tied back, yet still draped down her shoulders. Her eyes were bright blue and seemed very active, as if her mind was full of thoughts that I could never dream of thinking. Her face was not round but elongated slightly and her chin was thin. She looked to be about my age, yet she had an air of maturity -- not threatening, more friendly -- around her. She cocked her head to one side.

"Well?" she asked, "Can you see me?"

"Quite clearly…" I muttered.

It was this that brought the girl to her senses. Her eyes widened, horrified and she backed away.

"Linoone!" she called and the pokémon scuttled onto her shoulder. "Oh dear," she said, "You're not meant to be able to see me?"

"Why?"

"Because… oh god, Clara's gonna kill me anyway!"

"Clara?"

"Listen, umm, you stay here, yeah. Oh, who am I kidding, you can't move and, um, we'll get the, oh dear… Um… yes, yes, we'll…" Her voice trailed off and she put her index finger to her ear.

"What is it?" she hissed, slightly violently, startling me. Her attitude had changed vigorously.

"Listen mate, you don't scare me… I… oh…" She let the 'oh' ring in the air. It was actually quite ominous.

While she listened to some sort of person in her ear, I contemplated her sanity. She seemed sane enough, perfectly under control, but she did seem, at the exact same time, to be talking nonsense. Suddenly, I was aware of something slapping me and realised I had closed my eyes. I opened them. It was the girl.

"This is no time to sleep. We have a major issue at our hands." She fiddled with her ear some more.

"Git-head," she groaned to herself, "He's closed all lines of communication." Then she turned her attention to me.

"Okay, we need to move, before it's too late. Oh, I hope Clara's gonna understand why I have to do this…"

"I can't move," I replied, helplessly.

"I know!" she said, baffled that I had said such a obvious thing. She lifted up her top slightly, and revealed six poké balls.

"I cheat," she said, matter-of-factly, "I technically have seven pokémon if you include Linoone here," she gestured to the ferret pokémon perched on her shoulder, who seemed to enjoy acting as this girl's scarf.

"Anyway," she said, "No time for chit-chat. She threw her poké ball to the ground.

"GO ABRA!" she called, then shrugged, "I only shout for the effect." Abra was humanoid in shape, except the fact that everything seemed very disproportionate and yellow. It appeared to be asleep. "Abra?" the girl nudged the Abra, "Abra, wake up!" The Abra started, then looked around lazily, and saw it's trainer.

"Abra can you teleport me and Matt --" Abra looked across at me, while I pondered how the girl knew my name, "-- out of here, preferably to a secluded place where no one else is around. --" The Abra looked cheeky. The girl raised her voiced, angrily "-- on this planet, not in lava and not in the middle of the ocean like last time!" The Abra thought for a second, realised that there were no flaws in what the girl had said and dully said:

"Abraaaa!"

The room around me seemed to glow a pearly white. Until it became unbearable. I felt my back shift uncomfortably and painfully as if I had been picked up and whirled around. For a fleeting second, I saw an imprint of a red face, fire-like in appearance before it was gone and all the white flashed green, then was black.


	2. Cleansed

**Chapter 2 - Cleansed**

It was a dream. That was what had happened. The girl and her Linoone and that Abra, in my room: It had all been a dream. I smiled, my eyes remaining firmly closed and let myself drift into the covers of my bed, as a warm breeze blew over me.

Warm breeze. That wasn't right. I always had my windows shut, these days.

"Oh, real smart, Abra," came an all to familiar voice, "Transporting the bed as well! How am I gonna carry the bed around and hide it? -- Don't fall asleep, oh you plonker of an Abra!"

Not a dream then, I thought.

I looked up and saw a clear blue sky. My eyes flicked around me (I had long since given up trying to turn my neck) and judging by the trees all around me, I guessed I was in a forest clearing. The sound of nature was all around me, and in particular, I could hear running water, somewhere to the right of me. The bed was slightly lopsided, implying it was on a slope.

"Ahh! You're awake!" said the girl, cheerily, "I guess not moving all day make's you really tired, huh?" I frowned.

"Sorry, that was crude of me," she said, blushing slightly. Then her face brightened again, "We haven't properly introduced each other, have we!"

She curtseyed, while at the same time skilfully warped Abra back into her poké ball. "Kate," she smiled, holding out her hand, realised I couldn't it, and disguised it by patting my hair. "Err, sorry, 'bout that," she grinned sheepishly.

"It's okay," I said, but I didn't smile, instead, I started to interrogate her. "What's going on? Why have you taken me here? Where is here? Who were you speaking to earlier? Why were in my bedroom earlier?" The questions rushed out of my mouth in quick succession.

"Well, let's start with 'Where is here?', shall we?" But Kate, instead of answering my question, whipped out an odd machine. Seeing, I was looking baffled, she mumbled: "Pokémon Encyclopaedia."

Two minutes passed as Kate pressed random buttons and holographic images appeared in mini above the screen. I frowned; I wanted answers sometime soon. "Finally!" she cried, then continued "We appear to be in, ah, yes, that could propose a problem…"

"What?" I asked her. She ignored me, but muttered to herself "Yeah, better play it safe. Don't want to be seen by a ranger or a warden. They'll think we're trespassing, or worse poaching!"

"Where are we?" I asked her again, slightly angry, that she was ignoring me like this.

"What? Oh…" She looked mildly surprised I was there, "We're in Fuchsia City's Safari Zone. Which is not good because --"

She was interrupted by a massive gun shot piercing the surroundings. Kate groaned. "Well that's gonna attract every single goddamn ranger and warden in the world. God, I hate poachers! -- Y'know, I think me and the gang should --"

But she stopped speaking abruptly, and I knew why. The very earth was rumbling; there was no mistaking it. What on earth could it be? The rumbling only seemed to get more and more violent. I could feel the very bed I was on shaking. Was it my imagination, or was there a dust cloud forming in the distance?"

"Run!" screeched Kate, horrified and started to sprint in the other direction before jerking herself back, realising of my, somewhat more horrific predicament. Her Linoone had taken to quiver in a nearby tree. She ran over to me and shoved my arm over her neck and hauled me out of my bed. My eyes were permanently glued on the dust cloud on the horizon. Except, of course, it wasn't a dust cloud it was a stampede of animals. I could make out individual Rhyhorns, Donphans and other such pokémon.

While I, even if I hadn't been paralysed, would have been paralysed in fear, Kate bravely whirled me and herself around and staggered us into the wooded area.

It was at this point when the true disaster happened.

The bed, possibly because of the tremors, slipped out from underneath itself and started tumbling down the wooded embankment, straight at Kate and I. It hit Kate and she flew forwards, crashing into a tree. I, however, with the bed building up momentum behind me, and of course my inability to move, could do nothing but tumble downwards. I was briefly aware of the first of the stampede crashing around me… Yet they all seemed to be determined to stop… --

Suddenly, I felt like my heart and stomach had shot into my mouth. I was aware of having nothing but air beneath me. I barely had time to realise what was going on -- the embankment must have come out over a cliff -- before I plunged into deep, cold water.

Gasping for air, I tried to kick my legs up.

And realised I could.

Looking down, (I could look down!), I saw my legs moving about quite easily, and I was controlling them. I tried to move my arms, and found, like my legs, I could, quite easily.

But the current was still strong enough to keep me from surfacing. Becoming increasingly desperate for air, I tried to reach up, but couldn't. I panicked. I was not going to die, straight after recovering from paralysis!

Then a thought crossed my mind. Maybe I was already dead. Perhaps this was just a path to heaven or hell, or wherever I might be heading. Perhaps I should just let this river do whatever it wanted to me.

"NO!" I shouted at myself, though only precious bubbles rushed past my face. I'm not dead! I'm going to live! I will live! And with newfound desperation, I started to swim with all my strength upwards. But then I found myself look consciousness. I felt my eyes roll into the back of my head. Then I hit something hard.

It was just about what was needed for me to black out.

But, before I did, a smile appeared on my face. My paralysis was gone, once and for all. I would not die, a paralysed person, as I was so sure I would. My mind flitted briefly on my parents who I realised would be so worried about me. It didn't matter. Finally, after three years, my curse had left me. This river, or the fall, or Kate or whoever or whatever it had been had truly and utterly cleansed me.

It was at that thought, that I truly passed out.


End file.
